On January 10, Chinese manufacturing giant, Xiaomi, announced the new independent Redmi sub-brand. In the conference, it also released the first smartphone from this brand which is the Redmi Note 7. According to Xiaomi CEO, Lei Jun, this smartphone uses an optimized SD660 which performs better than the regular Snapdragon 660. This is one of the most anticipated smartphones for early 2019 and this device perfectly balances specs and price. It will most likely be a hit in the smartphone market. According to the official introduction, after two years of improvement, Xiaomi has successfully upgraded the long-term comprehensive normal usage rate to 18 months. Thus the warranty period for the Redmi Note 7 is 18 months which is higher than the usual 12 months. The Redmi Note 7 is the first in the industry to implement the 18-month long warranty.

Design & Appearance

The new Redmi Note 7 comes with a high-value body design with a crystal clear 2.5D double-sided glass. The front and rear of this smartphone are made of a Corning Gorilla Glass 5 which makes it rugged and tough. This smartphone comes with a Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection and Lei Jun said that the fifth-generation Gorilla Glass used by Redmi Note 7 is a product that supports its budget plan. According to Corning, its fifth-generation Gorilla Glass is four times more affordable than competing glass, and it retains the damaging properties, optical clarity, and touch sensitivity of Gorilla Glass. In addition, this smartphone comes with an illusion gradient colour which makes the Redmi Note 7 to show a dynamic light and shadow change effect. The company provides this device in three colours which include Twilight Gold, Dream Blue, and Bright Black. The edges are slightly rounded to give it a premium feel and on the rear, you can see the vertically aligned dual rear camera setup as well as the rear fingerprint sensor.

Display & Performance

The Redmi Note is equipped with a 6.3-inch waterdrop screen which makes it the first waterdrop screen phone in the Redmi Rice series and in Xiaomi at large. This display is tough, rugged and can withstand all sort of drops as it uses a Corning Gorilla glass 5 protection with an aspect ratio of 19.5:9. Redmi configured the display to hit 450 nits brightness, 84% NTSC color gamut, stepless color temperature adjustment, luminous screen, eye protection mode, etc. As you already know, the Redmi Note 7 is powered by a fully-optimized Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor clocked up to 2.2GHz. Through running comparison, the fully-optimized version of the Snapdragon 660 (144,599) is higher than the Kirin 710, and the latter has a running score of 137,338. The standard version of the SD660 scores about 120,000 points.

In addition, the Redmi is equipped with a new graphite negative anode 4000 mAh large battery which supports QC 4 standard. According to the official introduction, when buying the new smartphone, you can add 10 yuan ($1.47) to buy the 18W Xiaomi USB fast charger which will give you a full charge in 113 minutes. Xiaomi said that this smartphone uses a design which ensures that all its buttons and interfaces are waterproof. According to the official introduction, the Redmi Note 7 supports dust and splash protection. The R&D team did detailed work, including I/O port seal design, switch & USB waterproof seal, speaker double-layer dust-proof design, independent earpiece sealing, and front-facing sealing rubber sleeve.

Display Tests

Before and after the release of this smartphone, numerous display strength tests for this device surfaced online. The Redmi Note 7 display was used to smash Walnuts and the display stayed intact. In another test, seven young men stepped and jumped on this smartphone and the display was not dented. This device was also dropped from a reasonable height without a fail in the display. One more Gif is contained at the end of this post.

Camera

In the camera department, Redmi Note 7 is equipped with a 48MP ultra-clear camera which can get more details when taking pictures, and it has a top-notch zooming capacity. This camera is assisted by another 5MP shooter on the rear. For a low-light environment, the 48MP sensor comes with an automatic four-in-one 1.6 micron meter high-pixel high-sensitivity mode, and the single-pixel photosensitive area is four times that of the original. For selfies, it has a 13MP shooter which is equipped with AI capability, environment recognition, facial beauty, and many more features. One interesting aspect of this budget device is that it retains the camera algorithm of Xiaomi’s recent flagship phones. Features line super night scene mode are compatible with this device. No need for a tripod as the hand-held capability can shoot a very clear night scene image.

In addition, Redmi also made a sound quality special improvement plan for Redmi Note 7. The company used PA components from the same supplier as Apple. In addition, the phone uses a DSM dynamic gain control, custom AAC micro-speaker. With its independent Box 0.64cc large sound cavity design, this device achieves a stable sealing performance, while the volume is large, the sound is better. It is worth noting that the Redmi Note 7 comes with a standard USB Type-C interface, and also retains the 3.5mm headphone jack.

Price & Availability

The Redmi Note 7 comes in three options which include the 3GB+32GB, 4GB+64GB version and 6GB+64GB version. As of now, the 4GB+64GB version and 6GB+64GB version are available for purchase for $209.99 and $309.99 respectively.

I have been a strong follower of Android devices since the release of Android Ice Cream Sandwich. Right now, Chinese tech completely fascinates me because they are probably the only manufacturers who tries to merge budget and specs.